Bright I Burn is an engrossing story about one badass woman, Alice Kyteler, who ruled in a man’s world. 1200s Ireland was rife with danger for such a woman, whether in be from disease, marriage, childbirth, or machinations of others. I loved the pacing of this story and interspersed town gossip. It’s dark. It’s feminist. It’s surprisingly funny at times. It’s not as witchy as one might infer, though all badass women are usually accused as witches (or bitches).

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

A fascinating and engrossing story of Alice Kyteler, supposedly the first woman to be condemned as a witch in Ireland. The story is set in Thirteenth century Ireland and reimagines the life of Alice through her childhood, her several marriages and her ultimate tryst with fate. I loved Alice, she was a strong-willed independent minded woman fighting to hold her own in a society dominated by men and biased against women. She probably was born in the wrong place at the wrong time. The book is short and the prose is simple. Overall the atmospheric descriptions reminded me about the writings of Lauren Groff. I loved it and I am definitely looking to read more from the author.

Thank you Netgalley, Knopf Publishing and Molly Aitken for the ARC.

★★★¾ — “inspired by the first recorded person in ireland to have been condemned as a witch, bright i burn gives voice to a woman lost to history, who dared to carve her own space in a man's world”—by sucking the souls of every woman around her. this isn't a feminist story in the modern sense of the word. alice is many things, but a girl's girl she is not. which obviously makes this a more realistic and immersive experience than certain other works of historical fiction because who in the year 1280 was? alice is not necessarily a sympathetic character, but she is raw and angry and real, a woman who claws for every breath she takes, a woman who burns the men in her vicinity before they can cage her first. her character and the plotline were impressively crafted, but i wasn’t the biggest fan of the prose. hence, the lower rating.

also, i opened this expecting absolutely nothing because i forgot to read the blurb. but if you're expecting anything about witch hunts, that's barely the last 15% of the book. this chronicles alice's life from when she was a child to after her fourth husband, and the witchery is a rather small part of it all.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy.

This is an interesting story about the first woman recorded to be condemned as a witch in Ireland. While it is well written, I didn't particularly like Alice, so it was hard to feel sympathetic toward her. The people around her never really became fully fleshed out, so I couldn't drum up much to care about with them either. The book has breaks where the author inserts the whispers and gossip of the people around the community, so you can see how their suspicions grow. While it does help to illustrate the lead-up to the climax, it felt very disjointed and took me out of any momentum in engagement I may have felt. Some of the language and descriptions are beautiful though, so portions of the book were more enjoyable.

A reimagining of the life of Alice Kyteler, the first woman in Ireland to be condemned for witchcraft. Set in Ireland during the 13th century, it’s mainly presented from Alice’s perspective, interspersed by a chorus of townspeople’s voices. Alice lives in the monastic town of Kilkenny where her father’s position as innkeeper and moneylender has set her family apart, both envied and despised. When her father dies, Alice’s forced to marry in order to take over his business. This was a fascinating look at life in Ireland in the 13 century and a fascinating look at how a strong individual like Alice, prospers and thrives. You won't always like Alice, but you will love her story.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for this e-arc.*

"Bright I Burn" by Molly Aitken is a dazzling and immersive tale, rich with vivid imagery and emotional depth. Aitken's lyrical prose and masterful storytelling create a hauntingly beautiful narrative that captivates from the first page.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A fascinating tale of a woman who refuses to submit to men’s will & rule, choosing instead to take control of her own life. In the 1300's this was not done and as a result, she is the first recorded women in Ireland’s history to be condemned as a Witch.

I had not heard the name Alice Kyteler before and was excited to learn more about her. I think this is a strong, well-researched, beautifully written introduction to her story. I really did enjoy Alice’s unforgiving, straightforward voice. Highly recommend!

This was such an unusual book. The writing was haunting, sparse and foreboding. I felt it was an excellent reflection of what we have lost to history and the bits and pieces of what we know have been recorded.

In 13th century Ireland, Alice Kyteler is ready to marry and gather what little independence a woman of her time can possess. When her father dies, she sheds no tears and wastes little time in marrying and taking over his inn in Kilkenny.

What draws attention to Alice is her knack for moneymaking and her several marriages. She also has knowledge of herbs and cures that many of the time see as a sign of witchcraft. Alice will go on to become the first woman in Ireland to be condemned for witchcraft.

Alice is not a likable character, but her story illustrates how many of her time were frightened of a powerful woman with her own resources and what struggles women have had to work to overcome.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review and recommend to other readers.

Alice Kyteler is an interesting choice of historical figure to explore — as Aitken marks in her author's note, she's the sort of ordinary, albeit very wealthy, woman we never would have known about were it not for the witch hunt against her. However, that accusation was not levvied against her until late in life, so this very ordinariness makes the story of her life a quick but less captivating read.

I can't believe I'm saying I was bored by a book about a bold, shrewd woman who plowed through four husbands, but here we are.

There is a detachment netted by some consciously pulled punches and a coarsely poetic prose in which time passes as if in a dream.

This book had such promise being about the first woman in Ireland accused of witchcraft. Kilkenny is one of my favorite places with so much history and potential for storytelling. Ultimately, it fell a bit flat. The short vignettes that gave us glimpses into Alice’s life were sometimes years apart and I didn’t feel like I got enough of any moments, except perhaps the very beginning. I liked the chapters starting with whispers and gossip but never got enough in the actual chapters.

2.5⭐️s. I guess I had expected more related to the witch trials for this book based on the blurb and marketing. Instead it was more about Alice living in medieval Ireland with all the corruption, violence and brutality of the time, dealing with people who wanted to take advantage of her or were jealous of her and how she navigated her ambition against that. The witch hunt focus wasn’t until the very end, and sort of glossed over quickly.

The story itself wasn’t bad at all, just again, not what I expected or anticipated. It also had a sort of poetic quality more than a character-development focus, so it was a little atypical in the way the story flowed. The book worked thru how cunning Alice was, what circumstances she was dealt, as well as how utterly and shockingly foolish her character judgement and poor choice was in men.

Ultimately I just didn’t like any of the characters. I think I would have been ok with the rest of it if not for that. They were all just awful people, either violent and cruel, self serving and vengeful, outside of the brief bits of husband #3, Richard De Valle.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.

The book starts out with Alice, a motherless girl. Her father is a lender and also an innkeeper. It soon becomes apparent that there is a problem in their relationship as she is half terrified and half devoted to him. This has turned her bitterness towards men but she needs their devotion to live. Like her father, Alice becomes a lender and innkeeper. She marries for money and in the desire to beget children--wanting to extend her value, her kingdom. The book is lyrical, almost poetic in its writing. The novel is not well-defined, almost as if the events are inferred rather than described. She angers many powerful people and, because of this, comes under suspicion of witchcraft. The chapters are divided by conversations, gossip about Alice that are not attributed to anyone, but let the reader know how the community thinks of Alice. I was not only captured by the story but also by the writing style. I received a complimentary digital ARC from Knopf and NetGalley. This honest review is my own words and opinion.

I was really excited for this one, and while it did have some great things happening, overall, it was a miss for me. The timeline was so jumpy. The author did label the chapters by date, but if you (like me) are bad at numbers and dates, then that will all go right over your head, and you will be lost most of the time. I felt like years went by with no indication that it had happened except that the characters were older all of a sudden. While the book had some great things to say about the way that society treated women who didn't conform to the norm, there are other books that do this in a more reader friendly way. I did like the main character and her POV, but the book just lost me much of the time. Maybe this won't be a problem for people who struggle with numbers, but it really made the reading experience disjointed for me.

The summary of this novel sounded really interesting. However, the execution left me wanting. I DNFed at 27%. I like Alice as a character and wanted to get to know her. The prose however often me confused about what was happening. There was also jarring ends to most scenes and lots of time jumps, sometimes a couple years in time, that left me grasping at straws. At one point Alice gets sent to a convent and we get maybe 2 scenes there and then there's a time jump to a couple of years later and she's back home playing with her son.

I love the concept, but I wanted more from Alice's story. I think some people will like this book, but I couldn't finish it.

Review going live September 19

This was a historical fiction retelling and reimagining the life of Alice Kyteler, the first woman to be persecuted as a witch in Ireland. I was incredibly excited to get an eARC of this because I had done some research into wise women in medieval Ireland and Britain for a course during my MA studies, but this just fell incredibly flat for me. 😔

Alice as a character was flat, rather one dimensional, and didn’t really go through any character development. I was almost bored by her at times and I feel horrible for saying this because I really wanted to like her and her desire to rule her life by her standards. Her apathy towards other villagers, while described as a need for self-preservation, just felt cold in general. I was also not particularly happy that Aitken teased a sapphic love between Alice and her servant that took her place on the pyre, Petronilla de Meath, and then never did anything with it. 😡

The time jumps in this short book felt stunted and rushed. The reader never gets a sense of Alice as a character and narrator because of this, and you end up as apathetic towards her as she is towards others. In all honesty, I would rather have stuck with Petronilla as a MC instead because she stood out more on the page than Alice did. 😬

The last thing thing that I didn’t particularly like was that Aitken makes all these links to wise women and their ways, especially the connection to the lynxes of Ireland (which, also why would she claim the Romans hunted them while they were there, which is also weird because Rome never conquered Ireland!), but then never once goes into detail about how Alice learned how to make homeopathic remedies. 🫨

All in all, I’m just left rather stumped. I felt like nothing happened in the plot and there were so many missed opportunities to really make this book shine. Big thank you goes out Canongate Books, Knopf, and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this in exchange for an honest review. I really wanted to like this. 🥲

Publication date: September 10

Overall: 1.5/5 ⭐️

This book had good writing that seemed to lean more literary. I thought that this fit the character-driven nature of the book, but did sometimes make it difficult to feel fully settled into the story. I appreciated the short chapters and found the different types of chapters interesting — I thought it made the book really readable and feel fast paced. Alice felt like a very dynamic, strong-voiced — if often frustrating - main character. All in all, it was an interesting glimpse it history I was previously unfamiliar with.

This was fiction but based on Alice Kyteler-
In 13th century Ireland, Alice was the first woman to be condemned as a witch.
She was a strong and successful businesswoman which was unusual. The story seemed to focus on how she acquired each of her four husbands and how they all conveniently died.
And she really was not a likeable character.
I enjoyed the book but was hoping for a bit more..
Thanks to Net Galley and Knopf for an early read.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I was hoping I would. The characters felt very undeveloped, and the plot was confusing. I liked the premise but the book was confusing and convoluted at times, which made it less enjoyable. Great idea, not so great execution.

Alice Kyteler is yet another woman from history who we would never have heard of if it hadn't been for an overly zealous, supposedly pious man accusing her of witchcraft and trying to burn her at the stake. Molly Aitken imagines Alice's life as the child of a wealthy innkeeper who watches her mother struggle under the auspices of women's work and vows never to become like her. Alice is ambitious and turns her father's wealth into a great fortune, but her many husbands' deaths haven't been unnoticed by her community and the church. Rumors spread rapidly and Alice is torn between staying and fighting or running for her life.

This book starts rather well and then tends to get a bit confusing. I liked the tone and thought the story was interesting but every now and then it meandered a bit and I found myself wondering what was going on.

Thank you Netgalley for providing an ARC for review.